Rotary air compressors and rotary engines have housings that include chambers accommodating rotating rotors. A plurality of vanes movably mounted on the rotors function to move and compress air in the chambers in response to rotation of the rotors. It is conventional practice to utilize springs to continuously bias the vanes into engagement with surfaces, such as the inside walls of housings forming chambers accommodating the rotors. Examples of rotary air compressors having spring-biased vanes associated with the rotors are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,242,692 and 1,424,977. Rotary compressors and engines having spring-biased vanes movably mounted on the rotors have limited operating speeds. Centrifugal forces cause the vanes to move into frictional contact with the inside walls of the housings providing the chambers for the rotors. This frictional contact causes heat and wear of the vanes and inside walls of the housings.
Rotary vane-type devices have been designed to positively position the vanes during the rotation of the rotors relative to the housings of the devices. The positive positioning of the vanes is achieved through rollers located within continuous cam tracks. Shank et al. shows, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,097, a vane-type air compressor having a rotor with a plurality of vanes. Rollers located in tracks positively control the location of the vanes during the rotation of the rotor.